Negative commands (لا)

Negative Commands

To tell someone not to do something, Arabic uses the negative particle لا followed by the present tense verb in the Jussive mood (المضارع المجزوم).

For a masculine singular listener, the Jussive mood drops the final short vowel of the present tense verb. When fully vocalized, this is marked by a sukun (a small circle indicating the absence of a vowel) on the final consonant.

Feminine Negative Commands

When giving a negative command to a single female listener, the Jussive mood works exactly like the imperative and subjunctive forms you already know: it drops the final ن from the feminine present tense ending, leaving only the long vowel ي attached to the end.

Weak Verbs in the Jussive Mood

Because the Jussive mood acts by "cutting off" the end of a verb, its effect is very noticeable on "weak" verbs that contain long vowels:

• Verbs ending in a vowel: If the verb ends in a weak long vowel, that final vowel is dropped entirely. For example, the masculine verb ترمي (you throw) drops its final vowel to become ترم.

• Hollow verbs: If a verb has a long vowel in the middle, the Jussive mood drops that middle vowel to prevent two vowelless letters from sitting right next to each other. For example, تخاف (you fear) shortens to تخف.

Combining Commands

You can string multiple negative commands together by simply repeating ولا (and do not) before the next verb in the Jussive mood.

Seeing the endings

The singular jussive is a sukun, an absent vowel, and unvocalized text cannot show it. Written out in full:

Before a word that starts with ال, the sukun is pronounced as a short -i to link the two words: لَا تَلْمِسِ الْكَهْرَبَاءَ. That is why the audio of that drill says talmisi.